Amazon.com
Pete Egoscue learned a lot about pain when, as a Marine officer, he waswounded in Vietnam. He segued from patient to physical therapist, and now runs afamous clinic in San Diego, where he claims he's helped 95 percent of his patients curechronic pain--including Jack Nicklaus and Charles Barkley, whose athletic careers hehelped prolong. At the heart of his program are stretches and motion exercises to restoreproper function to muscles and joints. His methods are often surprising andcounterintuitive. For example, for foot pain, he suggests a series of hip exercises. In fact,this is one of the most startling books you'll read about the human organism. Egoscue hasstrong opinions about how modern life is changing the way our bodies function, reducingthe tasks we must perform and thus reducing the functional range of motion of ourmuscles and joints. Fortunately, he offers movement exercises to restore what naturemeant us to have.Book Description
Starting today, you don't have to live in pain.

That is the revolutionary message of this breakthrough system for eliminating chronic pain without drugs, surgery, or expensive physical therapy. Developed by Pete Egoscue, a nationally renowned physiologist and sports injury consultant to some of today's top athletes, the Egoscue Method has an astounding 95 percent success rate. The key is a series of gentle exercises and carefully constructed stretches called E-cises. Inside you'll find detailed photographs and step-by-step instructions for dozens of e-cizes specifically designed to provide quick and lasting relief of:

Lower back pain, hip problems, sciatica, and bad knees
Carpal tunnel syndrome and even some forms of arthritis
Migraines and other headaches, stiff neck, fatigue, sinus problems, vertigo, and TMJ
Shin splints, varicose veins, sprained or weak ankles, and many foot ailments
Bursitis, tendinitis, and rotator cuff problems
Plus special preventive programs for maintaining health through the entire body.

With this book in hand, you're on your way to regaining the greatest gift of all: a pain-free body!

the help of Pete Egoscue's revolutionary program of quick
stretches and strength-building exercises, you can cure
chronic pain, and do it naturally.

Pete Egoscue has shown thousands of individuals, corporations, schools, and championship sports teams how to eliminate pain without investing in expensive ergonomic devices or resorting to surgery or drug therapies.  His groundbreaking book, with nearly 50,000 hardcover copies sold, shows readers how to:

Relieve lower back pain
Improve hip problems, sciatica, and bad knees
Relieve migraines and other headaches, stiff neck, fatigue, sinus problems, vertigo, and TMJ
Relieve painful problems, like carpal tunnel syndrome, often misdiagnosed as arthritis
Prevent injuries and maintain health through stretching programs for the entire body

Filled with easy instructions, photos, and line illustrations throughout, this book will provide quick, effective pain relief. --> ... Read more

Customer Reviews (147)

good book
lots of info on pain relief.main focus is on alignment and what you can do to improve yours.the exercises work if you work them.the hardest thing is stay true to them after you feel better.i also have the video,which is also very good.if you have pain,try the method,you might find relief,i have.

Should be required reading for doctors, chiropractors; all medical professionals
I bought my first copy of this book on a closeout table several years ago. I have a number of chronic conditions which result in chronic pain. What I liked was the statement that his exercises stop pain right away... hard to believe, but for a few bucks, it was worth a look.

Well, I was, and I remain, ASTOUNDED at how spot-on Pete Egoscue is with his method. It's a simple premise - when your body is in alignment, you have far less pain ... similar to chiropractic philosophy EXCEPT- Egoscue takes it a logical step forward. Your muscles are what hold your bones in place... and if you don't retrain your muscles, no amount of chiropractic adjustments will really help.

His exercises are EASY. There's none of the "hang upside down by your toes" absurd things you find so often in 'methods' which purport to eliminate pain.

I've loaned this book (and finally bought several as loaners and gifts) to friends which both acute and chronic pain issues, and IN EVERY SINGLE case, these exercises helped them dramatically. One friend is dealing with advanced cancer, and somehow got intense sciatica - he said the pain was worse than the cancer! - and he did a few of the exercises from Egoscue's book and eliminated the pain. And this fellow had all the high end pain medications he wanted - they couldn't stop his pain, but the "supine groin stretch" did it. (As an aside, can you imagine how great it feels to really HELP a close friend in a situation like this?)

Now, it WILL stop your pain right away, but the effects won't last indefinitely. You do have to participate here... you do these easy and relatively quick exercises daily for a while... ideally you'll make his whole body routine a part of your daily life. (I didn't, too lazy I guess, but do return to the book whenever I need the help... along with yoga, you can't lose!!)

I can't imagine a better testimonial to this method. It WORKS. Just like he says. Wow.

Worth a try.
The idea behind this book is that you can relieve pain by normalizing your body's posture and movement. Likewise, the book's premise is that chronic pain is the result of imbalances in your body. The cure? Exercises called "E-cises" that aim to get your body lined up properly and moving normally. All major areas of the body are covered such as the hips, knees, ankles, back, and so on. Recommend this book for chronic pain sufferers- even if the theory of the book is incorrect, it will get you exercising which has been shown to help fight chronic pain. Shoulder pain sufferers might also find Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff helpful as well.

Pain Free: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain
Received my first book of Pain Free while in physical theraphy. Egoscue theraphy is excellant.Had past previous books on to friends, just re-supplying my library.

Great Guide to Pain Elimination in the Body
This book is an excellent resource for living and functioning with proper body posture and alignment, and how we can make easy changes in our bodies to eliminate and maintain a pain free life. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Healing Back Pain promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. It should have been titled Understanding TMS Pain, because it discusses one particular cause of back pain--Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)--and isn't really a program for self-treatment, with only five pages of action plan (and many more pages telling why conventional methods don't work). According to John E. Sarno, M.D., TMS is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks, and limbs--and it is caused not by structural abnormalities but by the mind's effort to repress emotions. He's not saying that your pain is all in your head; rather, he's saying that the battle going on in your mind results in a real physical disorder that may affect muscles, nerves, tendons, or ligaments. An injury may have triggered the disorder, but is not the cause of the amount or intensity of the resulting pain. According to Sarno, the mind tricks you into not facing repressed emotion by making you focus on pain in the body. When this realization sinks in ("and it must sink in, for mere intellectual appreciation of the process is not enough"), the trick doesn't work any more, and there's no need for the pain. (Healing Back Pain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic or acute back pain.) --Joan PriceBook Description
Healing Back Pain promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. It should have been titled Understanding TMS Pain, because it discusses one particular cause of back pain--Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)--and isn't really a program for self-treatment, with only five pages of action plan (and many more pages telling why conventional methods don't work). According to John E. Sarno, M.D., TMS is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, shoulders, buttocks, and limbs--and it is caused not by structural abnormalities but by the mind's effort to repress emotions. He's not saying that your pain is all in your head; rather, he's saying that the battle going on in your mind results in a real physical disorder that may affect muscles, nerves, tendons, or ligaments. An injury may have triggered the disorder, but is not the cause of the amount or intensity of the resulting pain. According to Sarno, the mind tricks you into not facing repressed emotion by making you focus on pain in the body. When this realization sinks in ("and it must sink in, for mere intellectual appreciation of the process is not enough"), the trick doesn't work any more, and there's no need for the pain. (Healing Back Pain should not be used for self-diagnosis. Always consult a physician for chronic or acute back pain.) --Joan PriceDownload Description
Dr. John E. Sarno, author of the revolutionary book Mind Over Back Pain, is a medical pioneer whose program has helped thousands of patients overcome their back conditions--without drugs or dangerous surgery. Now, using his latest research into TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome), Dr. Sarno goes one step further: after identifying stress and other psychological factors in back pain, he demonstrates how many of his patients have then gone on to heal themselves without exercise or other physical therapy. Find out:· Why self motivated and successful people are prone to TMS· How anxiety and repressed anger trigger muscle spasms· How people "train themselves" to experience back pain· How you may get relief from back pain· How you may get relief from back pain within two to six weeks by recognizing TMS and its causes With case histories and the results of in-depth mind-body research, Dr. Sarno describes how patients recognize the emotional roots of their TMS and sever the connections between mental and physical pain and how, just by reading this book, you may start recovering from back pain today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (343)

Thank you Dr. Sarno!
I read this book back in September of 2006 and intended to come back and post a review but it had slipped my mind.However, the book helped me tremendously!I was so gratefully that I wrote Dr. Sarno a letter in December of 2006.Rather than re-writing my situation and opinion of this book, I will paste in the letter I sent him.

Dear Dr. Sarno,

I have been running for over 20 years and always maintained a very healthy lifestyle.In 2005, I gradually increased my training compared to recent years in an effort to get back into competitive shape.On January 1 of 2006 I began having pain in my lower back.Shortly after that, I had to curtail and eventually quit my running.An MRI in late February indicated bulging discs in the lower lumbar region.Throughout the year I continued to experience pain in my lower back despite having eliminated my running.The pain was amplified whenever I bent over.Things like brushing my teeth and flip-turning while swimming were the most aggravating.During this time, I saw a general practitioner, 2 chiropractors, 2 physical therapists and a stretching specialist - taking up lots of my time and money.All of them treated me with the conventional methods to no avail.In early September, I got the second referral to your book, "Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection", and finally decided to read it.

Shortly after beginning the book, I began to feel less pain in my back.By the end of the book a couple weeks later, I felt like the pain had dissipated enough and that I had enough confidence to resume running.I have been running pain-free now for 2 months and do not experience any pain when bending over like I used to.I believe that your theory on lower back pain (TMS) is very accurate and that all I needed to do was realize the true cause of my pain in order to eliminate it.

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge on back pain and for writing this book!I credit you and the book for getting me back into a pain-free state to where I can enjoy all the things in life that I did before the pain.

Sincerely,

A must read
I had been having lower back pains for like six months when I got this book, and I had a sever golfers elbow that I had treated with every conventional to unconventional therapy for more than two years (acupuncture shock wave treatment orthopedics etc) after just starting to read about TMS, I started to get better, and before I ever finished the book I was almost 100% free from any pain. Now I need to get rid off my hay fever too.

Indeed this book is a lifesaver if your are ready to accept the thesis.

This really works
I came down with a bad bout of sciatica last fall of 2007.I was in excrutiating pain.Pain started in my buttocks and radiated down to my knee cap.I could not sit, lay down, or sleep.I tried everything.I went to the chiropractor and had the electrodes, massage therapy, adjustments, acupuncture nothing helped.I went to the PC DR and was prescribed steriods and an MRI.The MRI showed a slipped disk on my left side note my pain was on the right.I researched the net to try to find an explaination of why this was happening and what I could do.My pain on a scale of 1-10 was a 10.A colleage shared the idea of this book with me.I went home watched the DVD and then read the book.My pain subsided in a matter of weeks.The self talk explained in the book was what really worked for me.Dr Sarno I thank you for relieving me of my excrutiating pain and allowing me to return to a normal life.I now have the knowledge of what lies beneath this pain that is 100% real.

The Miracle of Honest Science
I suffered from chronic lower back pain for over half a year before reading this book. I am only about a third of the way through it and am already almost completely healed.

It is nice to see that medical science is finally becoming science (again): self-transcending, undogmatic, honest in acknowledging the subject as always-already the foundation of faith/reason (for the two are here conflated) in any seeking of ('objective') truth which is not 'out there' but rather 'right here', at the core of consciousness itself, and capable of birthing much stronger physiological concomitants than the modern western mind is typically prepared to acknowledge. Indeed, the greatest medicine (self-Knowledge) is free and sets free, but requires the courage to face oneself in a most radical way. "Error is not blindness; error is cowardice."

MUST read this book if you have back pain
I heard about Dr. Sarno from a friend who said that his back pain was completely cured after he read this book. I later picked it up for another friend with back pain and ended up reading it before giving it to him. It's such a revolutionary concept that its almost fantasy fiction. I continue to give this book to anyone with chronic back pain. A few weeks ago, my boyfriend's back went out, he got the MRI and the surgeon recommended immediate surgery for his ruptured disk. I made him read the book and he felt a bit better. He's scheduled to see a doctor that specializes in TMS to get a full diagnosis before he ignores the surgeon. But this gives hope to anyone who has back pain that they can get completely better. Read it before you do any invasive procedures, go to a doctor or get an MRI. It just might cure you. ... Read more

Book Description
Terrie Williams knows that Black people are hurting. She knows because she's one of them.

Terrie had made it: she had launched her own public relations company with such clients as Eddie Murphy and Johnnie Cochran. Yet she was in constant pain, waking up in terror, overeating in search of relief. For thirty years she kept on her game face of success, exhausting herself daily to satisfy her clients' needs while neglecting her own.

Terrie finally collapsed, staying in bed for days. She had no clue what was wrong or if there was a way out. She had hit rock bottom and she needed and got help.

She learned her problem had a name --depression -- and that many suffered from it, limping through their days, hiding their hurt. As she healed, her mission became clear: break the silence of this crippling taboo and help those who suffer.

Black Pain identifies emotional pain -- which uniquely and profoundly affects the Black experience -- as the root of lashing out through desperate acts of crime, violence, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, workaholism, and addiction to shopping, gambling, and sex. Few realize these destructive acts are symptoms of our inner sorrow.

Black people are dying. Everywhere we turn, in the faces we see and the headlines we read, we feel in our gut that something is wrong, but we don't know what it is. It's time to recognize it and work through our trauma.

In Black Pain, Terrie has inspired the famous and the ordinary to speak out and mental health professionals to offer solutions. The book is a mirror turned on you. Do you see yourself and your loved ones here? Do the descriptions of how the pain looks, feels, and sounds seem far too familiar? Now you can do something about it.

Stop suffering. The help the community needs is here: a clear explanation of our troubles and a guide to finding relief through faith, therapy, diet, and exercise, as well as through building a supportive network (and eliminating toxic people).

Black Pain encourages us to face the truth about the issue that plunges our spirits into darkness, so that we can step into the healing light.

You are not on the ledge alone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

SOMEONE ELSE SHARES MY WORLD
I knew there were people who felt what I felt and I wanted to write someone.But one day I caught a short portion of a conversation Ms. Williams was having on the radio and she mentioned her book.I ran write out to order it.It talks to my soul in a way that made me know that other people were suffering and that maybe I should get someone to talk to other than hiding.The title of the book speaks volumes alone not to mention the words between the cover.I give this book the highest raiting there is.Thank you Ms. Williams for your story and the story of so many others.

Wow, Terrie is brave and Speak the Truth!
Terrie I applaud your mission, vision and precision in which you handle such a "touchy" subject in the Black community.You know how to bring people together for a cause and I was so awed by the information you researched in this book and the resources you shared. Thank you for stepping out and championing this topic and bring light on a subject that has kept many in the dark for so long. Excellent read - touching and motivating.A book for anyone who have ever known anyone who suffered from depression or any mental illness. A flashlight book!

Pam Perry
Chocolate Pages Reviews

Let's Start Talking
Millions of black people are needlessly suffering from depression.Even when the symptoms of depression are raging and screaming inside of us, too many of us are not doing anything to seek help. Could it be a lack of knowledge about the disease?Could it be the stigma that depression is a mental illness and we are ashamed to be associated with a disease such as this?Would we choose cancer or high blood pressure, would we choose a heart attack? NO.Neither do we choose depression.
Terrie Williams latest book"Black Pain, It just looks like We Aren't Hurting" is a literary treasure.This book should be recommended reading in every household, and school counselors should have a copy on their shelves.It's a masterpiece for book club discussions.

Terrie Williams, an International MotivationalSpeaker, Publicist, Entrepreneur, Best Selling Author and Visionary, comes forward and leads the way to encourage you to exit the darkness and enter into light.The collective wisdom that is shared in this book will, without a doubt ,let you know thatbecause we often choose to remain silent, untreated depression can be extremely traumatizing. It can even kill you.

Whether fervently speaking to an audience or ardently through the pages of this insightful book, you are instantly aware of her compassion for others. You sense the urgency of her mission to expose the myth that depression is a weakness and something that you should be ashamed of.
One story, Terrie's own life account of a successful journey in the business and entertainment world, while secretly fighting the intense forces of depression is riveting to say the least.What happened when her mask came off?It was monolithic.Thousands of people from all walks of life reached out to Terrie, for they too were struggling with this condition.

Black Pain is full of quotes, statistics and true chronicles from celebrities, professionals, and everyday working people who candidly and passionately share their stories. The inner struggle and conflict with depression comes in many forms and can attack different people in various ways. This triumphant book is about finding the courage to take responsibility for yourself or for someone that you love.

You'll be astonished, you'll be sorrowful, you'll even laugh, but most of all you'll be informed.

Three words; Read Black Pain.
Let's start talking and sharing so we can become a part of the solution.

Sisters Sippin Tea - Tulsa Chapter

READ THIS BOOK
Terrie Williams has written a masterwork on how Black oppression has led to Black depression. Every African-American will find their story told over and over, informing them of where their variety of depression comes from, plays out and where they can go for effective help. For the non-Black reader this book will educate and illuminate for you not only the Black experience but in essence your own. I have just finished this amazing book and and now reading it for the second time. Read this book! Nuff said. ... Read more

Book Description

The bestselling author of From Fatigued to Fantastic shows chronic pain sufferers how to treat the underlying causes of pain and regain health and vitality

Customer Reviews (13)

Helpful
Incredible book! It has helped my mother, that has fibromyaglia, more than any doctor ever has! After a month she is better already! And she was in the worst shape of any fibro patient anyone had ever seen.

WOW
I would recommend this book to any one who has pain.Their are ideas that I have found nowhere else. This Doctor believes the body can not heal if it doesn't have what it needs to do so.If the cell lacks energy, how can the body heal?I have purchased this book for several people.Pain is a complex problem.This book has answers.

Good information
I received the book very promptly and it was in good condition.
The information is very good on what I have read so far.

If you are in pain, this is THE book for you
Here are some of my favorite quotes:
"Although both allopathic and natural medicines have their weaknesses, when you combine them, almost all pain can be effectively treated. It's the difference between having only one tool- say a hammer, which is like allopathic medicine - or a whole tool kit that includes the dozens of other healing arts available in natural medicine. A hammer can be a very useful tool, but unfortunately when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail! It's much easier to get the job done safely and effectively when you are using all the tools available." (Keep in mind the author is a medical doctor!)

"I simply propose that you use the best of both systems. To make this easier for you, and to maintain objectivity, I have a policy of not taking money from any companies (natural or pharmaceutical) whose products I recommend. In addition, for the products I make, 100 percent of my royalties go to charity. There's nothing wrong with money, I simply don't want to get in the way of your getting well!" [Wow, now isn't that refreshing!]

"...most Americans are chronically dehydrated, and this can make you feel worse as well. I do not recommend that you count glasses of water; this is an annoying way to spend a day. Simply check in with your mouth and lips every so often. If they are dry, you are dehydrated and need to drink more water."(How many times have we all read that we have to have eight or ten glasses of water a day? Really, how many of us spend a day counting how much we drink?! What a practical solution to the problem!)

You will find this book engaging, informative and practical.

Great book
Great book.I have taken some of the ideas to the Dr and they have helped.Would highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Amazon.com
The Problem of Pain answers the universal question, "Why would anall-loving, all-knowing God allow people to experience pain and suffering?"Master Christian apologist C.S. Lewis asserts that pain is a problem because ourfinite, human minds selfishly believe that pain-free lives would prove that Godloves us. In truth, by asking for this, we want God to love us less, not morethan he does. "Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved;that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its objectis, in that respect at the opposite pole from Love." In addressing "DivineOmnipotence," "Human Wickedness," "Human Pain," and "Heaven," Lewis succeeds inlifting the reader from his frame of reference by artfully capitulating thesetopics into a conversational tone, which makes his assertions easy to swallowand even easier to digest. Lewis is straightforward in aim as well as honestabout his impediments, saying, "I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Painhurts. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine that being madeperfect through suffering is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond mydesign." The mind is expanded, God is magnified, and the reader is reminded thathe is not the center of the universe as Lewis carefully rolls through thedissertation that suffering is God's will in preparing the believer for heavenand for the full weight of glory that awaits him there. While many of us naivelywish that God had designed a "less glorious and less arduous destiny" for hischildren, the fortune lies in Lewis's inclination to set us straight with hischarming wit and pious mind. --Jill HeatherlyBook Description
Why must humanity suffer?In this elegant and thoughtful work, C. S. Lewis questions the pain and suffering that occur everyday and how this contrasts with the notion of a God that is both omnipotent and good. An answer to this critical theological problem is found within these pages. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (80)

Must read book
If you are a Christian... or if you were once a Christian, "The Problem of Pain" is one of the most important books you could read in your lifetime. Perhaps, it is one of the most important books in Christian thought and scholarship.

Stan Faryna

The Problem of Pain
It says something that after so many years C. S. Lewis is still one of the foremost Christian apologists of our time.The Problem of Pain is a difficult question every religion has to deal with, and one which has been especially difficult for Christianity.Some religions have the luxury of explaining pain as something deserved - a result of bad behavior from a previous life, or perhaps pain and suffering are caused by a malevolent deity in opposition to a good and loving God.Christianity has no such option.

"If God were good, he would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished.But the creatures are not happy.Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both."

Lewis presents a very readable and widely accessible solution to this problem, covering the origins of human suffering, incurred in the fall, what divine omnipotence and goodness really mean, and why they allow for the existence of pain in creation, heaven and hell, and a topic not often treated but important - the existence of pain in animals who are in every sense innocent.

Particularly useful is Lewis' distinction between kindness and love.Lewis reminds us that real love, a love that looks out for the best interests of the beloved, sometimes requires the inflicting of painful experience.From the perspective of the one undergoing the experience, this may not seem like love, but any parent, teacher, or anyone tasked with the guidance of the young will understand that this sort of "tough love" is often necessary if one does not want a spoiled child to grow into a spoiled adult.

The problems of The Problem of Pain
Clive Staples Lewis is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Christian writers of the twentieth century.He is always accessible to ordinary people like me because of his plain-spokenness and his willingness to use analogies and examples.That said, he had his work cut out for him here, and he wasn't up to the task.Here's where he fell short.

*"If the universe is so bad...how on earth did human beings come to attribute it to the activity of a wise and good Creator?" (p 17).This is a straw man and a non sequitur.It's a straw man because the universe isn't bad.Viewed one way, it merely *is.*Viewed another way, parts of our universe are good (sex, love, family, football) and parts are bad (pain, loss, despair, death).It's a non sequitur because there is no logical link between the universe and Lewis' implication that because we can conceive of the Good, Good therefore must exist.It would make just as much sense to say that because humans have conceived of a movie where aliens come to earth that therefore E.T. must exist.

*Lewis uses the reasoning that because we, humans, have a conception of proper conduct, with only some variation among cultures, that this must mean that God has given us morality (p 21).In response, I note that if morality is externally imposed on us as a fixed law of nature, then there would be no variation in it, or else God would be inconsistent.It would be like having the sun shine for one person but not the person right next to him.Moreover, there is a simple anthropological explanation for basic moral conduct.Conduct that perpetuates the family or group over time is more successful than conduct that harms the family or group.That's why the Hottentots, who immorally kill their "excess" babies, remain a small group, while the rest of humanity has grown.

*The key part of the book is Lewis' attempt to resolve the problem of pain inflicted on people by forces of nature, i.e., pain experienced by a person, inflicted by a force not engaging in human free will.Lewis attempts to answer this particular dilemma by essentially arguing that the nature of reality requires this type of pain to exist: "Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature...involve[s], and you will find you have excluded life itself" (pp 33-34, see also p 54).

Frankly, Lewis' conclusion doesn't make sense.Let's take a plausible example from the 2004 Tsunami that killed more than 250,000 people, many of them children.A child is the least morally culpable type of person, I think everyone can agree.So: a three-year-old child is drowning in the tsunami, screaming for help that never comes, gasping, choking, in utter terror as he vainly attempts to catch a breath of air.He drowns after experiencing four or five minutes of torture and fear.Lewis is saying the child *had* to suffer this way -- that reality would grind to a halt if he didn't?Lewis himself in this very discussion admits God performs miracles when it suits him (p 34) but somehow God can't alter reality so that this child does not suffer?

Lewis attempts to buttress his position by arguing that to take away pain totally would be like playing chess with a player who could change the rules at his whim (p 34).That might make sense when discussing pain caused through free will, but not when discussing pain caused by nature.He inappropriately analogizes the impersonal forces of nature to a free-willed individual, the chess player.

*"When the relevant difference between the Divine ethics and your own appears to you...the change demanded of you is in the direction you already call `better'" (p 39).In response, I point out one of the classic clashes between human ethics and divine ethics presented in the bible: the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham.Gen. 22:1-2.Is Mr. Lewis really telling us that our moral compass will tell us that offering our children as sacrifices is in the direction of "better"?Which is more important -- following our morals or being obedient to God?Lewis can't make up his mind, first saying the former (pp 38-39), then the latter (pp 101-102).

*"[L]ove may cause pain to its object, but only on the supposition that the object needs alteration to become fully loveable" (pp 55, 91-92).While that may be true in some circumstances -- "For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth" Prov. 3:12 -- it certainly doesn't make sense when it comes to the suffering of children.Does a baby really need to die screaming in agony in that house fire in order for God to fully love it?Ridiculous.Outrageous.Monstrous.Contemptible.

Lewis can throw in the towel, and claim that spiritual realities are not "even explicable in terms of our abstract thought" (p 86).Or he can cherry-pick his examples on pain by claiming that free will necessarily must include pain (pp 32-31, 81-82) and we need pain to whip us, adults, into shape morally (pp 55, 104-107, 120).Fine.But don't pretend the existence of pain can be satisfactorily answered if you can't answer the problem of pain inflicted by nature on children.Every, EVERY scenario in which pain is felt and inflicted must be satisfactorily answered, or the premise of a loving, personal God, fails.

Personally, I think the only real response to the problem of pain is the one God gave to Job: "Shut up."See Job 38:1 - 40:2.

Disappointing
I read this book some time before I abandoned Christianity.I was looking for answers to some of the serious questions and doubts that are bound to come in any thinking Christian's life.My reaction to Lewis's arguments in this book were, "Is this really the best we can do?"I was deeply disappointed.I'd expected something a lot better and I was astonished at the poverty of Lewis's theodicy.If this is top-shelf apologetics, then apologetics is a poor field.

A Simple but Poweful Argument
C.S. Lewis offers a brilliant defense of Christian theism despite the pain in the world in this brief book. Combining sharp thinking and excellent prose, this book is highly recommended for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Lewis's arguments are similar to many theodicies (defenses of God's existence despite suffering) developed by great Christian thinkers past and present. Man's suffering is in fact a result of free will, not an original creation of God. And suffering continues to result due to the evil wills and deeds of men. As Lewis observes, "When souls become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another; and this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the sufferings of men." If men are to have any significant free will at all, the bad consequences of evil deeds must be allowed.

This, of course, leaves the problem of so-called natural evil. Lewis contends that such evil and pain are necessary for our own repentance. In order to recognize our sins and ask God for forgiveness (and thus restore the proper relationship between created and Creator) we humans must be awoken with pain and suffering. Pain shatters the notion that what we have is ours and is good enough.

The Problem of Pain, despite its brevity, covers a great deal of ground, including a defense of the doctrine of the fall and the doctrines of heaven and hell. All throughout, Lewis's writing style is accessible and convincing. For a powerful defense of Christian theism in the face of a cruel world, "The Problem of Pain" is highly recommended. ... Read more

Amazon.com
What causes chronic, debilitating back pain, one of the most common--andexpensive to treat--ailments in the world? According to Robin McKenzie, a NewZealand physiotherapist for over 40 years and author of the wildly popularself-help manuals Treat Your OwnBack and Treat Your OwnNeck, distortion of the spinal disks--either from bad posture orinjury--is the cause of the pain. The magic cure is the McKenzie Method--sevenvery specific exercises that allow the spine to return to its natural position.But forget the doctors--McKenzie asserts that the management of your back painis your responsibility. Practice his seven unique exercises (the book includesseven each for the back and neck) consistently and at regular intervals and justabout anyone can cure his or her own back or neck pain without the help ofprofessionals. McKenzie believes self-treatment is actually more successful thanmedical interventions like surgery, chiropractic, or physical therapy, andindeed, recent research does show self-treatment to be a highly effectivemethod.

More richly detailed and in-depth than his previous books, this volume isillustrated with over 100 photos and liberally peppered with real-life casehistories. Starting with an analysis of how the back and neck work, it moves onto a discussion of the common causes of pain--bad posture is most often toblame. At the core is a detailed explanation of how to do the McKenzie Methodexercises, when to apply them, and how to adjust your personal program overtime. Included are instructions for people who suffer with acute back and neckpain (with appropriate cautions regarding when to call a medical professional)as well as for people in special situations like pregnant women, athletes, andseniors. An impassioned introduction by coauthor Craig Kubey, a satisfiedconvert after suffering intense back and neck pain as a result of several autoaccidents, could very well make a believer out of anyone. --MariannePainterBook Description
The phenomenon known as the McKenzie Method has helped millions of people with chronic back and neck pain. In 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life, its founder, world-renowned physical therapist Robin McKenzie, shares the innovative program that can save you from a life of pain. 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life combines and enhances McKenzie's back and neck books that have sold more than 5.5 million copies worldwide.

The 7 essential steps that make up the McKenzie Method have become the keystone for back and neck care in 35 countries, including the United States. In this easy-to-follow, fully illustrated book, you'll read about:

* Common causes of lower-back and neck pain
* The vital role discs play in back and neck health
* Easy exercises that alleviate pain immediately
* How to stay out of pain

Complete with more than 150 photos and illustrations, and considered the treatment of choice by health care professionals throughout the world, 7 Steps to a Pain-Free Life will help you get out of pain-and stay out of pain. It is an invaluable tool for better health. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (63)

Help is at Hand
I would never have believed that spending a few minutes a day with a little book could relieve my chronic back-pain, but I believe it now!I have lived with pain for years, and have had both my hips replaced. This gave me much relief, but I sit a lot, which causes pain in itself.My son has this book, and while visiting him I looked through it, and half-heartedly did a couple of exercises.I was surprised and delighted to find that my back felt better after a few minutes of the exercises.I ordered it from you when I went home, and when I received it I began to do the suggested movements as instructed.They are easy, have only to be done at my own pace, and the relief is extraordinary! The best thing is that I thought I would always have to rely on strong pain relievers, and it is now rarely that I take one, so the nausea I felt from their effects has gone too.An added bonus.It would be good to use this book before there was any pain - I feel it would keep the spine healthy for a lifetime.

Great Book for Managing Chronic Back and Neck Pain
This book was recommended to me by my orthopedist and my by physical therapist. It is very informative and the exercises are great. I have been using the book for about two years in conjunction with instructions from the above medical practitioners.The exercises really work to help you through and reduce the length of acute pain periods and when used daily significantly reduce episodes of acute pain.

Works only if your spine is stiff and the low back curve is flat
This is suitable for healthy and athletic type younger people. Be careful if you have DDD (degenerated disc of the lumbar) or arthritis. This may give relief for couple of day but the pain comes back! The tension pose (equivalent of bending back) actually increased my pain after 2 weeks.

Back pain is gone for first time in over 7 mo's after using this book
I am only 29 yrs old and have had a terrible back almost my whole life, and about 8 months ago, my worst ever back pain episode began and did not subside for another 6 months, until I read and began following the McKensie method principles.

My spine specialist almost demanded that I read this book, so I was a bit skeptical at first that he might be trying to promote the book for his own benefit.However, after having read and used the techniques outlined in this book for the first few days, I instantly became aware that my doctor was not trying to trick me, but rather, he gave me an incredibly valuable resource.I now do these stretches several times every day, and my back is practically pain free.I am able to go to the gym and exercise again without throwing out my back, and working an 8 hour day doesn't injure my back either.It's like a miracle.I am also seeing a McKensie method trained physical therapist now and am much better using his exercises when compared to the exercises of my old physical therapist.

I highly recommend giving this book a try if you have recurrent lower back pain that hurts most when sitting or standing, and is most severe when bending forward.It works better than all the doctors, acupuncturists, and physical therapists I've ever seen.And make sure your physical therapist is trained in the McKensie Method or else you could risk aggravating your back even further.

At Last!
I've been in pain for 6 months but just a few days of these exercises and the pain is gone.It's a quick read and the illustrations make the exercises easy to do.The testimonials were overkill and I skipped most of them.Back doctors may be put out of business! ... Read more

Book Description
“Women today not only deserve but should expect a pain-free, active lifestyle, no matter their age, no matter their previous experience.”

Pain Free for Women

In his famed San Diego clinic, Pete Egoscue has taught women of all ages and from all walks of life how to use the Egoscue Method for safe, effective, and permanent relief from chronic pain without prescription painkillers, physical therapy, or invasive surgery. Now he shares his specially adapted “Pain Free” program for women to use at home.

Whether you suffer from back or neck pain, joint discomfort or sore knees, or need more stamina, improved balance, and extra strength, here is a revolutionary and proven approach to self-care that promises optimal health through a simple set of exercises that will transform the way you move and feel — forever!

Egoscue shows women how to take back their bodies by recovering and restoring a precious health asset — full, free, flexible motion — that he believes has been drastically reduced by our modern lifestyle.

As Egoscue explains, motion not only develops a woman’s body but also maintains and rejuvenates it. Yet as her motion-deprived muscles disengage and weaken, it is common for a woman’s body to lose alignment, leading to repetitive stress injuries, persistent pain, and general bad health. Even the simplest activities — how she sits, stands, walks, works, lifts, and sleeps — can trigger problems.

Focusing on proper alignment, posture, and muscle engagement, Egoscue provides simple but powerful techniques to restore flexibility and function while at the same time boosting energy, revving up the immune system, even raising the body’s metabolic rate.

The remarkable “E-cises” included within have also been linked to improved ability to fight disease, cope with aging, and recover from accidents and injuries. The “miracle” cure Egoscue offers is, simply, correct motion.

Organized by the seasons of a woman’s life, Pain Free for Women pays particular attention to age-specific concerns such as puberty, childbirth, and menopause, as well as special issues such as arthritis, PMS, and depression.

At the same time, Egoscue shows how women can build a framework of healthy movement that will prevent illness and maintain pain-free good health throughout the journey of life.

According to Egoscue, reversing the effects of poor musculoskeletal fitness provides astonishing benefits, including:

•Better balance, posture, and breathing, as well as increased resiliency
•Effective and safe weight management
•Healthy bone density and visual acuity
•Heightened sex drive
•Delayed symptoms of aging
•Peace of mind and general tranquility

Extensively illustrated to demonstrate proper placement, posture, and movement, Pain Free for Women offers women of every age the possibility of feeling better than ever before.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

Pain Free for Women: The Revolutionary Program for Ending Chronic Pain
Egoscue theraphy is excellant.Had past previous books on to friends, just re-supplying my library.

Pain Free for Women works! Do it 3 times a week
The Book Pain Free for Women is a great tool in your healthcare routine.If you follow the easy yoga type movements, you will feel better.The steps are easy to do and if you stick to it-it will help you.

Good Resource
This book provides an excellent explanation of the functions of the musculoskeletal system and how it's function affects women. The exercise instructions are clear and pictures are large. A good resource for women of all ages to improve or maintain musculoskeletal system health.

Wonderful!
I have so many things to say about this I would like to use bullet points. I will cover what it has done for me, add some comments on the book itself and then make a couple of final notes.

Notes about what using Egoscue's method has done in my life:

* I have been using this and Pete Egoscue's other book "Pain Free" for a year and a half now. I am a female in my early 30's. I have sent a copy of this book to all the women close to me because it has helped me so much.

* I have a very severe case of Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and had constant pain throughout my body. I tested only two pressure points short for Fybromyalgia. As I became more ill my overall physical health declined severely. I couldn't even stand to do dishes for long, let alone cook or exercise or many of the things I am now become able to do.

* Within the first two weeks of doing the e-cises (only about 30 min a day) I stopped getting night sweats and the pervasive, all-over body pain went away. I still had a lot of joint pain and realized I was very badly out of alignment (when standing comfortably my right foot was turned out and further forward than my left by 6 inches - no kidding!).

* Over the last year and a half I have become less chemically sensitive, I don't get dizzy as often, my stamina has improved (I had gotten so I couldn't handle even handle flying on an airplane). For years I had a yellow tint to my skin (my doctor thought it was normal), but this has now disappeared, my liver enzymes were mildly elevated, but are now normal.

* I haven't had ANY pain from my herniated disk for over a year now!

* You don't have to be in pain to benefit. For years I tried to do handstands, but never go good at it. Presently I can do them with complete ease. I never realized that it wasn't my arm strength that was lacking (I had really strong arms), but rather, shoulder strength and alignment.

* I've had a limp ever since I was 11 when I cut the tendon to my large toe. I can now proudly say that the limp is completely gone. :) I also don't lose my balance all the time when I walk like I used to.

* Almost best of all is that I had sleep maintenance insomnia, which has greatly improved. I used to wake on average once an hour every hour throughout the night. Now I wake perhaps once every three. This is continuing to improve.

* Most importantly, I had stopped being able to sweat years ago. I would simply overheat. After a year of doing e-cises I started sweating again!! Once I started sweating I found I can tolerate being around chemicals more (perfumes and such), I don't get as swollen, and I recovered from exposures faster.

Nothing else I tried really helped my MCS, but this has made all the difference in the world. I'm not sure I would have recovered to this point without it. The improvement in my quality of life has been worth every minute of it!

Notes about the book itself:

* This sort of thing is very difficult to teach from a book. I've found using "menus" from each of his books to be very useful.

* Some things you have to figure out for yourself. I started on my age group's restoration e-cises in this book and my knee pain got worse. That is when I figured out that Egoscue was really serious when he said that if you have pain in a specific joint that using the "Pain Free" book first to target it was best. I did the knee exercises in that book for about a couple months and then was able to return to the menus in this book without difficulty and found it much easier.

* I love the format of this book. It starts with infancy and how even babies and children can get inadequate movement. I found its detail in how we became "out of alignment" to be most useful and it really inspired me to get back into alignment.

* He also gives a restoration menu for each age group and a maintenance menu for when that one because really easy.

* For those who want to go further than the maintenance menu, he gives a strength menu and a strength menu with weights if you are interested in using them.

* He has a menu for people who are seriously ill and need "slow changes".

* He also includes menus for prepregnancy/1st trimester, second trimester menu, third trimester menu, and post pregnancy.

* The Supine Groin Stretch Does take a long time - but only at first. The first day it took me an hour each leg for the groin muscles to relax. The second day it was about 50 minutes each. The third day it took about a half an hour each leg. But within two weeks it only took a few minutes each leg and now, still, it only takes me about two minutes a leg.

*If you have a lot of problems in many joints or very severe joint pain I suggest starting with Egoscue's "Pain Free" book, but if you don't have many problems or don't have much pain then I would recommend this one.

A couple final notes:

The e-cises really must be done everyday to see the benefit. When I skip day, two or especially three I start getting pain back, not as bad as when I first started this, but I start losing ground. When I am consistent I see progress daily. My closest friends all use this and they keep coming back to me and saying how well it works to get rid of their pain and how much better they feel afterwards.

My husband is a professor in a medical school, not only does he use Egoscue's exercises from his "Pain Free" book, he recommends these two books to people regularly.

Excellent
This book is a wonderful guide for how to maintain or find and then maintain overall health, particularly for your back. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (12)

Disappointed
I wasn't nearly as thrilled with this book as some of the folks whose reviews influenced me to buy it.If you know anything about the functional anatomy of sensation/pain and/or psychology of pain, it's not for you; you won't get anything new.If you're newly diagnosed with a chronic pain syndrome, and don't have a background in any of the above, yes, it might be helpful.

Highly Recommended
I work in a multidisciplinary pain treatment clinic as a clinical psychologist. Dr. Caudill is a well-respected scientist/expert on the subject of chronic pain.She has significant experience in hands on treatment of chronic pain.Her motives in writing this book obviously include a wish to make knowledge of effective pain coping resources more broadly available.Like other good pain coping books (e.g., "The Pain Survival Guide," Dennis Turk, PhD), the book effectively covers a range of knowledge of what works in helping chronic pain patients help themselves.Caudill details up-to-date and proven means of controlling pain.She explores how mind and body interact to regulate and moderate pain and how to reduce and better manage pain (e.g. learning to moderate sympathetic arousal, reducing fatigue, pacing, interpersonal factors that effect pain and visa-versa, changing thoughts and behaviors and maintaining gains).
The book is systematically structured as an effective self-help tool.It provides many well-formed exercises to effectively encourage adoption of proven resources.I encourage patients to use it as part of outpatient treatment process.I also routinely suggest it to patients who prefer to work on their own.In either case, many patients effectively apply it with little or no assistance.
If you are looking for self-help with chronic pain, I highly recommend this book.I do not think you will be disappointed.I also recommend "The Pain Survival Guide."Both are written by articulate and compassionate experts.I recommend both books to healthcare professionals who regularly, or occasionally, treat individuals with chronic pain, as effective summaries of current clinical wisdom on these subjects.
I believe it is important to add that, for many with chronic pain, gaining the motivation to help self is the biggest challenge.Often a first issue is determining if the cost of addressing, managing and taking responsibility to manage pain appears worth the benefit.Caudill treats both issues with understanding and empathy.

DOCTOR RECOMMENDED AND NOW I KNOW WHY!
I suffer from fibromyalgia, chronic cluster headaches, 3 herniated discs in my neck covered in bone spurs and 3 herniated discs in my lower back and torn ligaments in my right knee. Granted I am medicated, but this book is a wonderful help. It gives you hope and follows through. I would recommend this to ANYONE! PLEASE, IF YOU SUFFER FROM PAIN, EVEN MINOR PAIN, GET THIS AND READ IT. IT WILL BENEFIT YOU! Get it in hardback if available. I wish I would have.

Used in our Pain Class
Since 2003 I've been using this book in my chronic pain class that I conduct. The patients get to check out the book for the four weeks. We have a difficult time getting them to turn it back in because they enjoy the material.There are so many good tools in this book. I would recommend this for any health care professional that deals with chronic pain patients.

Using it for Ongoing Chronic Pain Program
Our Pain Committee reviewed several resources before settling on this workbook for our community Living With Chronic Pain Program. It has not disappointed us as we are in our 5th program cycle. Participants find it a valuable resource, the summaries are like 'cliff notes' at the end of chapters so they can keep up with the reading, and I have been very pleased with the information. It is current, helpful, and up to date. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (16)

Beautiful. Crackling Dialogue; an Excellent Read
This is a great one.Cameron's dialogue is so sharp and focused it just jumps off of the page.It's one of those books that screams for you to read passages aloud to other people. At turns very, very funny and other times sad and brattish; this is a real winner!

another snobby teenager
I like Peter Cameron and his writing which is why I gave this book at least 2 stars, but truly, the boy in this book was quite insufferable, I just wanted to smack him.And ultimately the book just kind of ends, without anyresolution, I just didn't get the point. I think the fawning praise this book has received is a bit overboard so don't be fooled by it.As a YA novel it's all rather pointless, read the Sherman Alexie book instead.

Imperfect but Still Sweet
Cameron offers in his novel a portrait of a boy on the last stage of childhood - his hero is free from the confinements of secondary school he hated and not quite ready to enter university he is rather afraid of but which awaits him with open arms. This is the moment (generally speaking) when The Catcher in the Rye also starts and This Pain starts with enough momentum to make the reader believe we have a 21st century Catcher here. We don't. What starts so well soon grinds to a halt like a car with not enough fuel. Too many characters on board may be a problem too - they are interesting and at least to a degree credible but the stage gets a little too crowded for a little monodram we would expect.
Cameron manages very successfully to depict his character, his flaws and failures, but he fails to deliver a story that would both suit this character, and keep the reader interested. The book will not be wasted on James' peers who may share his problems and fears but it may not be enough to hold an older audience for long.

Facing Adulthood
Cameron, Peter. "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You", Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2007.

Facing Adulthood

Amos Lassen

Coming-of-age is never easy but it is very hard in cynical tines. James Sveck is a cynic growing up surrounded by cynics in Peter Cameron's new novel, "Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You". Here is a novel written beautifully and crafted with great skill that not only is endearing but humorous as well. It is a novel about today and Cameron manages to capture the cynicism and with sarcastic irony the period in which we live today. James, our hero, observes all that is happening around him as he leaves high school and prepares for college at Brown University.
The sarcastic title of the book sets the tone for the novel and as we meet our socially antagonistic hero we learn that he is emotionally distant, obsessed with himself and that his parents are upper class and have divorced. It is his summer before college and he really doesn't want to go because he knows that he will have to interact with others. He spends that summer working at his mother's art gallery or going off to visit his grandmother or going to a therapist which his parents felt was a good idea after he supposedly had a nervous breakdown the year before while on a school trip.
James's fears, dreams and compulsions and passions are handled with lyrical writing by Cameron. It is never really clear if is gay but he does show the desire to be loved by the gay manager of his mother's gallery. He is frightened of life and Cameron is able to beautifully depict that with his writing. We also get an excellent satire of the art world and its pretentiousness.
Cameron tells us a tale of a culture where almost everyone is born again or undergoing therapy because they are unable to connect with the world which is devoid of idealism. This is seen through the eyes of a young man who doubts that he will find his own way in the world we live in.

A Gem of a Book!
I very much enjoyed several of Peter Cameron's earlier books,Andorra, Weekend and another book thta takes places in urguary whose name excapes me at the moment, and was, therefore, positively pre-disposed to this bookand I was not disappointed.I found this oddly named book a wonderful and highly involved reading experience ..yes, ti did remind me of Catcher in the Rye but I found it quite contemporary and wished that it would have continued on since James became more and more an interesting observer of all around him and I wished to experience more of his impending life rather than "letting him go" as he went off to college at Brown ..and, with the rest of his life experiences. ... Read more

Book Description
Dr. Art Brownstein suffered back pain for twenty agonizing years. Now he shares the cure that worked for him and thousands of others: his revolutionary Back to Life Program.

Sharing his own story of surgery, painkiller dependency, and severe depression, Dr. Brownstein guides you through the recovery program that gave him his life back. Today, he runs a medical practice, bikes, surfboards, teaches yoga, and leads an active life -- free of pain! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (41)

If you have back pain, this book will help you
This is a wonderful book!When you read it, you know instinctively that what you're reading is true.If you're in enough pain to try even some of the exercises and ideas in the book, it will help you.

Back Pain Gone
Twice in my life I have experienced debilitating back pain:twenty years ago, which resulted in a successful spinal fusion, and eight weeks ago--a bolt of electricity shot through my lower back, not once but twice.Ouch!Not wanting to relive myearlier experience, I read Healing Back Pain Naturally from cover to cover and applied the principles as I read.
Art Brownstein addresses all aspects of back pain from the various causes of the pain to principles of self healing.There are excellent photographs and written descriptions of stretches which promote healing.He also factors in the role stress plays and includes several breathing/relaxation/visualization techniques to practice. He covers nutrition, returning to work and to play, and emotional healing.A list of recommended reading is included for those who wish to explore furthur.
At this time, I am 90% healed.Just have to stick with the program everyday.And I will.

At Least Do Phase I For One Week Before Giving Up On This Program
I have purchased 6 of these books, I have given 5 of them to friends who are suffering from back pain or know some one who is. The ones who have started the program and done at least the Phase I exercises have reduced their pain and their condition has improved. I bought the first book because one of my friends was in great pain and chiropractic adjustments had not helped, he did not have insurance nor money for MRI or Orthopedic Medicine, so I bought the book, read it from cover to cover, did the exercises myself and ask my friend to do them, at first he was skeptical and felt that if doctor visits, pain medication, girdles and chiropractors had not helped "Do you think exercises on the floor will help me? You are crazy."Well I convinced him that he had nothing to lose by trying. I showed him the book and I took him through all the Phase I exercises, he did those for a week and he noticed that the pain seemed to be less intense: "May be we are onto something" he said. Within a month, he could sleep better and now a few years later he is almost pain-free, he has confessed that when he does not do the exercises the pain seems to come back, so every night and morning he does the Phase I exercises only, I believe that if he did all three phases he would probably fix his problem which he thinks is a herniated disk. I do the exercises my self and I am much more flexible, once I helped a friend unload a heavy bag from the trunk of the car and my back went out. I rested on my back for one day and did the exercises and within a week I was feeling better.
Thanks Doctor Brownstein, you have truly helped lots of people with this book.

These are my recommendations to heal your back.

1. Buy a hard mattress, go to the furniture store that caters to the Chinese or Koreancommunity and buy a Korean made mattress, they are hard.
2. Buy this book, preferably the hard cover edition and read as much as you can and do at least the Phase I exercises. If you are in extreme pain you may only be able to do the first exercise of the Phase I set of exercises only, this is why it is important you read the chapters that precede the exercises so you understand how the back works and what could go wrong with it and what you need to do when something goes wrong with it.
3. Do at least the Phase I exercises. Do all the exercises if possible, Phase I through Phase III.
4. Enroll in a Yoga class.

In the reviews I see that some people claim that they tried this program and did not work for them. I can only say that if you did the exercises for one or two days and gave up, then you have truly denied yourself from the great benefits that this program can bring. You need to do at least the Phase I exercises one month everyday--faithfully; then make a judgment on whether this program is beneficial.

Best wishes to all.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
To the author, a great big THANK YOU! I have read dozens of books about back pain, been to physiotherapists and doctors, taken medication and tried numerous exercise programs, and nothing worked. However, thanks to this book, I finally have relief from long-term, chronic back pain.(Herniated disk in lower back.)

This book is worth the cover price just for the exercises alone. I have been completing the Phase 1 exercises on a daily basis and already I can put on my socks and pants with ease, bend over to dry my feet when I get out of the shower, easily get in and out of bed without pain, etc. I even sat through a 2-hour workshop today and felt no pain when I stood up. This would have been impossible previously. For example, a couple months ago, I went to a restaurant with friends and when I stood up at the end of the meal, I felt so much pain in my back and hip that I could not stand up straight. Not now! I can stand up straight and I am pain-free.

I will admit to having some doubts about the mind-body connection referred to in the book. However, it is all so well presented, that I am willing to consider it. That aside, I think the exercises alone provide so much pain relief that it is still a very valuable book. I am going to buy it to give to a couple people as gifts.

It works!
Great investment for those with back pain.Just from bits and pieces of what I have read and practiced so far, I've been able to recover from a recent back injury in a very short period of time and will hopefully lead to a pain-free back for life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (56)

Any structural ache? A must-read as a second opinion!
The older I get, the more I need to believe in second (health status) opinions? This book encourages believing in the power of one's own body. This is not hokus-pokus. This is based on the healing power of the body by using mind (emotion) and body. The book is witten by a well-established MD, who isquestioning "standard" practices.

This book changed my life.
Yes, I am serious.No hyperbole. I had just moved to North Carolina from Florida in 1986, but was back in Florida on business. Because I still had a month or more on my membership at a local fitness/rehab center, I went there to work out each day of my visit.On one particular day, I was aching pretty badly from the long-running, chronic back pain I had had for more than seven years.

At the time, it was attributed to a car accident in which I totaled my car.Seemed logical.But, that day in the Florida fitness center, I picked up a magazine (I think it was New York magazine, but it might have been The New Yorker) and read an article about back pain.As I read it and peddled on a stationary bike, I was experiencing constant back pain.One reference in the article was to Dr. Sarno and his views on this subject.I didn't realize at the time how I was internalizing his theory.

That evening, I was at a friend's home waiting for them to arrive home from work.I thought about what I had read and it struck me like the proverbial thunderbolt.Here I was, about to sit down on a couch and I realized that I could test Sarno's idea.Instead of my typical posturing and holding my back to avoid pain as I tried to sit, I literally flopped and fell into the seat, throwing caution to the wind. I figured, what have I got to lose?A bit more pain?Well, there was no pain.None.It absolutely shocked me.I laughed out loud.Of course, I then got up, but noticed that I slipped into my habitual holding tight as if my back had a steel rod running up and through it. That hurt! That made me realize thatwas "me" and not a skeletal or other physical problem that I had.I then had something remarkable happen.The muscles in my back and upper buttocks literally relaxed in a wave of release.This was all about Sarno's theory, folks.And it worked for me.I bought Dr. Sarno's book before I left Florida.

I went back to my new home in NC and at my next chiropractic session (I had been to M.D.'s, physical therapists, chiropractors, and massage therapists since the onset of the pain), I waved the book in the air and proclaimed what I had learned.She wanted no part of it.And so, that was my last chiropractic session with her or any chiropractor for this so-called chronic lower back pain.Ever since then, I've been able to manage any twinges of recurring pain because they are few and far apart and eliminated through stress management and relaxation.I don't know where Dr. Sarno is, but he changed my life and I thank him for it.

It really works!
Like many other reviewers, I'm here to tell you that Dr. John Sarno's theory that the majority of chronic back pain is caused by stress will set you free.

I found myself during a particularly high stress period experiencing numbness and pain in my right arm. Within a month I was immobilized by it, living on Vicodin.

It took about 6 weeks of reading and re-reading the book to get to the point where I no longer needed pain killers. I had been told I had a bulging disc and would require surgery. Dr. Sarno saved me from surgery.

Yes.... really.

If you are suffering from chronic back pain I urge you to read this book. The realization that we are doing it to ourselves - once it sinks in - is enough to end your pain and change your life.

I still feel a little pain on occassion - always during times of stress or fear - and I need only remind myself of what I learned from Dr. Sarno and it goes away. It is not an instant cure, and you DO need to read and re-read until your mind accepts the concept and your body falls in line...
but it WORKS!!

This is a good start!
When I first read Dr. Sarno's Mind Over Back Pain I developed a good understanding of the mind/body connection. It was his Healing Back Pain that give me a deeper understanding of how repressed anger, anxiety, and frustration can cause pain. At the time I was disabled with back, leg, neck, and hand pain, and quite disappointed and frustrated with the treatments I had recieved.

Dr. Sarno's explanation answered all my questions about my condition and fit perfectly well with all the crucial research information I had discovered. Although Dr. Sarno's guidelines seemed useful, I felt the need for more concrete steps and a faster recovery time. As a father of two, I wanted to get well as quickly as possible.

So I designed an effective nine-step plan for rapid recovery based on techniques used by Olympic athletes. The rapid recovery plan helped me improve immediately and recover shortly after. Those with herniated discs as well as carpal tunnel syndrome have recovered rapidly using these techniques.

After my recovery I wanted to share my story and the recovery plan with all those suffering needlessly from back and neck pain. In addition to conducting seminars and workshops for the University of California, CIGNA, and other organizations, I wrote Rapid Recovery from Back and Pain: A Nine-Step Recovery Plan which provides crucial research on back and neck pain and many cases of rapid recovery as well as a section for designing a personal rapid recovery plan. Rapid Recovery from Back and Neck Pain is availabe at Amazon.com.

Buy newer edition!
Dr. Sarno's concept is sound, but this is his first report, rather old.There are two newer books, the best of which, of course, is the 2006 "The Divided Mind : The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders", which I highly recommend.

... Read more

Book Description
Relieve and prevent chronic pain forever with this simple, safe, and sure-fire three-minute daily program!

Imagine a world free of aches and pains...no back pain, headaches, joint stiffness, or arthritis; no expensive ergonomic equipment or pain medications. With Dr. Joseph Weisberg's revolutionary new system, a pain-free life is now within reach of everyone--even those who have endured chronic pain for years.

At the heart of Dr. Weisberg's system is the 3-Minute Maintenance Method--a unique program for all ages and fitness levels that eliminates the conditions that cause pain in the first place. By utilizing six different thirty-second therapeutic movements the program makes it possible for the body to keep itself free of pain.

Thanks to Dr. Weisberg's groundbreaking program, relief--and a lifetime of healthy muscles and joints--is finally at hand. In fact, it's just three minutes away!

Download Description
"Relieve and prevent chronic pain forever with this simple, safe, and sure-fire three-minute daily program! Imagine a world free of aches and pains...no back pain, headaches, joint stiffness, or arthritis; no expensive ergonomic equipment or pain medications. With Dr. Joseph Weisberg's revolutionary new system, a pain-free life is now within reach of everyone--even those who have endured chronic pain for years. At the heart of Dr. Weisberg's system is the 3-Minute Maintenance Method--a unique program for all ages and fitness levels that eliminates the conditions that cause pain in the first place. By utilizing six different thirty-second therapeutic movements the program makes it possible for the body to keep itself free of pain. Thanks to Dr. Weisberg's groundbreaking program, relief--and a lifetime of healthy muscles and joints--is finally at hand. In fact, it's just three minutes away! " ... Read more

Customer Reviews (25)

A true Life Saver!
This book has literally changed my life! After working for years with various therapists for back pain, including physical therapy, Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Feldenkrais, and various others, this was the first book (and I have read many on pain relief) that helped me help myself. While the various therapies always helped for a while, I needed a way to make the benefits more lasting - and this technique WORKS! It also made a difference to me that he explains why each position helps and what to expect as I continue to follow the program. I began this program 5 months ago and considering this has been a life-long problem the results from the beginning have been amazing. I find this book so helpful that I gave many friends and relatives a copy for Christmas and they are now sending me their own rave reviews. A delightful "side effect" reported by friends in their 70's and 80's is a noticeable improvement in their sense of balance. Where they once might have fallen, they notice a stronger sense of balance and control. This is a major benefit as we get older. Also, my younger friends who are active in sports and work out regularly, are finding their workouts both easier and improved. One young friend says she often does the 3 minute program several times a day "just because it feels so good and doesn't take long." Included in the book is a three-month check up that makes one aware of a future problem before it gets severe enough to cause pain. By doing the suggested remedial exercises we can then prevent pain before it starts. I'd like to see this book in every person's hands who cares about a life that is pain-free both now and in the future. I would give it ten stars if permitted.

3 Minute Miracle
I overheard a passenger on a bus (recovering from a knee injury) rave about this book.I was curious.Investing 3 minutes seems a bit too easy.

I ordered the book and read through it in one evening.The first portion deals with the causes of pain, how we accept and treat pain and the general misconceptions of contempary pain management.Halfway through the book you'll come to the "exercises."Six basic positions.Sweep your skepticism aside and try the series of yoga like positions in the order prescribed. These are relaxed, non-bouncy, dynamic moves and slowly stretches muscles and joints in a very positive way.It's a well organized book and stresses that the prevention program can be done at anytime of day.In the time it takes to brew a cup of coffee or during the long commercial breaks on network TV - you'll experience, litterally, an overnight improvement.

This book will be part of my Christmas gift list to friends and relatives.

PHYSICAL THERAPY - VERY HELPFULL/USEFULL
This book is very downto earth AND very useful for maintaining musculoskeletal health.Gives theory/explanation, useful experience for everyone.My Dad got one and we got one to send to a niece/cousin.

Consistency is key, but easy at only 3 minutes a day!
I am a certified massage therapist with many clients in chronic pain as well as personally having a chronic pain issue. I was excited to find a solution that WORKS with CONSISTENT practice. After about 3 weeks I got out of bed one morning without limping and NO PAIN!What a relief!I really beleive in the importance of stretching but the shortest full body program that I had found effective took about 20 minutes.Most people do not have the discipline or the time to be consistent with that amount of time.Anyone can work three minutes a day into their schedule!I believe that is the reason that nearly everyone that I have recommended this program to has kept at it and many of my clients have experienced significant relief from chronic pain as well.Another feature that I liked about this book is that it has modified stretches for different levels of fitness/flexibility.I highly recommend it!

Yoga practitioner uses this book
I've lived & used Yoga for decades.I've also taught modified classes for others with physical constraints. That's why I'll address those thoughts.Due to early trauma and how my body responds to same, I've had spinal fusions and more.I've used most healing modalities, worked with top pain clinics, used westernand alternative treatments. Both worlds can hold many of us hostage.I stay active as able but have continued to live with severe chronic pain, all while being self supportive(I work) and practicing pro-active health care.I sceptically picked this book up off a shelf in a science museum. It came home w/me.Whether it's the order in which the simple moves are done, the consistency , the short time spent in each TMI, the tests along the way...it doesn't matter.What matters is that it has helped ease my pain. That's my bottom line. I've shared the book w/others who live with similar problems. They've each added to their own success rate.It's an worthwhile tool for the boxes of each who lives with disabling pain or wish to avoid entering that world.The angry Yoga practitioner writers may have missed a point that often long hours of even the healthiest moves can create discord.It's how any asana is used, and the time spent in same, that can add to or deplete our well being.Even herbs can harm if used incorrectly.My vote is....give it a try.These TMI's may be adapted by almost everyone.

P.W. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Easy to use
This bookis quite useful in its simplicity.I can almost use it as a direct guide while I draw.

Makes Sense
If you want to make prettier pictures with your crayons, then....It's a great buy, if you follow it as a true lesson plan.

Great drawing instructional book
With no formal instruction in drawing, I've had to learn the basics on my own and this book beautifully explains and illustrates perspective in drawing. It is great for beginners with exercises to help you grasp the concept. I would probably still be muddling around making the same mistakes without the help and guidance of this book.

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!
This book really is helping me to understand perspective.As an aspiring artist I had not a clue.I don't come from a background of having taken art classes all of my life so a lot of things did not make sense to me.My professor suggests this book from her syllabus and I have to say what a jewel it has been for me.I highly recommend this book if you are learning to draw as part of your library.

For the serious amateur doodler
Are you a serious amateur doodler?Want to take your idle doodling to the next level?Add some perspective and dimension. Dare to leave your next doodle behind for some one to find and marvel at. (go ahead and sign it so they can find you)
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Book Description
An eight-year-old girl, "The Great One," and her six-year-old brother, "The Pain," state their cases about each other and who is best loved by their parents

An IRA-CBC Children's Choice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great Book- good message
This is a great book, especially for kids with siblings!It shows how both children feel like the parents like the other one better and that they don't like each other but realize that life isn't as fun without the other sibling around.Highly recommend this!!

Two sides of the coin
There are remarkably few authors that have managed to write for almost every single age group.Judy Blume is one of the few.Though admittedly she has yet to write a baby book or large print text for the elderly, Ms. Blume has somehow managed to write picture books, young readers, full chapter books, teen novels, and even an adult title in her day.We all know who Judy Blume is, but we probably know her for very different reasons.As a kid, I knew her primarily as the author of "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing".My husband, on the other hand, associates her with that deliciously forbidden text, "Forever".For some kids out there, though, "The Pain and the Great One" is going to be their first impression of this undeniably great author.As of this review, it is the only picture book ever written by Ms. Blume.Be that as it may, it shares with all her books the frustrations and confusions that all kids can relate to on some level.Ms. Blume, the great empathic, should consider adding a few more picture books to her repertoire.This first book demands it.

A white page with a pink border.In black and white print are two words: The Pain.A sister then begins to relate to us exactly why it is that her little brother is a pain.Right from the start, you see where she's coming from.This is the kind of kid who insists that his mother carry him to the breakfast table every morning.Unlike his big sister, if The Pain doesn't finish his dinner he still gets dessert.A truly shocked and probably envious sister watches, broccoli perched on her fork, as her brother dives into a delicious bowl of what looks to be strawberry shortcake.One night, she gets to stay up later than The Pain, but comes to the almost immediate conclusion that, "without the Pain there's nothing to do!".The cat seems to prefer him and she finishes with the thought that when it comes to her parents, "I think they love him better than me".Suddenly we're looking at another white page with a pink border.In black and white print are three words: The Great One.Suddenly the perspective has shifted 180 degrees.We're in the head of The Pain and he's talking about his older sister.Sarcastically referring to her as The Great One, the boy talks about all the stuff she gets to do that he doesn't.She feeds the cat, so it must obviously like her better.She knows how to do all sorts of stuff without messing up.She swims with pleasure and isn't afraid to put her face in the water.The boy's final thoughts refer to his own parents as well."I think they love her better than me".The end.

The book was originally published in 1985.Reading it, I had to wonder if it could be published today.In the current publishing market, I can see well-meaning but oblivious department heads trying to convince Ms. Blume to give the story an ending where the boy and girl become best friends and everything ends up hunky-dory by the last page.I was a little shocked that on a first reading, this is exactly what I found myself expecting.No, what I expected was worse.Because when I got to the pink bordered "The Great One" page I suddenly thought that the story would show how much the little brother really and truly admires his older sister, even if she thinks he's annoying.There's probably a book like that out there somewhere.This book is not it.This is a book that tells it like it is.Sibling rivalry has never been so clear.Cleverly, Blume inserts tiny (I hesitate to call them) lessons into the story so that in the midst of each kid's litany of complaints, they learn things as well.The Great One learns that staying up late isn't fun without her horrid little brother.The Pain learns that playing with his sister's blocks all alone isn't fun in the least.If you're looking for anything more sappy than this, however, you're out of luck.This is Blume telling children what they already know, and kids will appreciate the honesty.

Illustrator Irene Trivas puts her back into this book.It's funny, but depending on who's telling the story, the illustrations shift ever-so-slightly in their favor.When The Great One talks about The Pain, everything he does is understandably annoying.When the boy talks about his sister, on the other hand, she suddenly becomes infinitely competent, intelligent, and skilled.She's annoying in an entirely different way.Trivas also gives each kid some remarkable characteristics.The Great One tends to sport a cowboy hat with a bright green or red feather planted in the brim.The Pain wears a wide variety of hats ranging from goggles, winged helmets, and baseball caps to his own cowboy hat and football helmet.Trivas hasn't done any picture books quite as prominent as this one since its publication.Let us hope she gets rediscovered in the coming years.

The obvious book to pair this one with would be, "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" by Judith Viorst.Both books are legitimate complaints from kids who feel woefully put-upon.Ms. Blume's books tend to have one thing in common: They know how to show unfairness from a kid or teen's perspective.Nobody does righteous indignation like Judy Blume."The Pain and the Great One", a kind of he said/she said book is the ultimate example of this.For some kids it'll teach them that there are two sides to every story.For others, it'll just reinforce previously unsubstantiated claims that their other siblings have got it better.For me, it's just a great book that needs to get rediscovered.That's all.

I CAN RELATE!
Wordsmith Judy Blume uses more verbal magic in this illustrated children's book about a little brother and a big sister. Another book that, at age 12, seemed "too kiddie" and beneath me.
I don't care if you're 60, 16, or 6 years-old! Even if you did not have the experience of growing up with siblings, or, in my case, I was the youngest, but had a smaller niece that acted as a baby sister.
Read so you know the title. Read so you know better than any Child Psychology book on the structure of Sibling Dynamics!

A Must Have Book for Every Family
My son (8 yrs old) read this to his sister (6 yrs old) while I was combing her hair.We all laughed so much, he had to read parts over.This is a school library book and I am ordering it now to keep on our library shelf.It will be the book I give to ever child I know.

My children are exactly at the age of the characters with reverse gender.They could readily identify with the situations and could laugh at very 'real' conversations.I am sure they recalled how many times they have each said, "You love him/her better than me."I know I could.I want them to read this book once a month so they can remember the joy in having each other.

words from THE Great One
I am actually purchasing this book as a gag gift for my baby brother.I believe we were nine and five when we first read this book and now, eons later, it has evolved into a family/cult classic around our homes.The book is fantastic and it most definitely captures some of the siller moments that go along with sibling rivalry. ... Read more

Book Description
If you suffer from chronic pain, this proven 10-step program brings hopeand relief, showing you how gradual changes in specific behaviors can lead to great improvements in your ability to cope. Psychologists Turk andWinters' recommendations are based on solid research that shows what works and on their success with thousands of patients. Unlike the authors ofother pain books, they promise no miracle cures, but they do help youlearn "not to let your body push you around" so life becomes enjoyableagain. The key lessons in this book include Uncovering some of the mythsabout pain and the deceptive ways it fools your body into unconstructivebehavior; Pacing your activity, so you build strength without overdoing or under-doing it; Learning how to induce deep relaxation so you can begin to enjoy life again; Dealing with disturbed sleep and chronic fatigue;Improving your relations with family and friends, and soliciting support;Changing your habitual behaviors in ways that reduce pain; Combating thenegative thinking that often accompanies pain; Regaining yourself-confidence and trust in yourself; The power of goal-setting andhumor; Dealing with the inevitable relapses and setbacks once improvementhas set in; Workbook exercises, behavior logs, and suggested readings help you integrate these lessons into your daily life and learn to live welldespite pain. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Very workable program
I have chronic pain syndrome as a result of a couple of spinal cord injuries. Sometimes it is more than a bit overwhelming. The hard part is the way the pain is always there. Sometimes it's worse; sometimes it's tolerable. But, it never stops. What I have found over the years is that if you suffer from chronic pain doctors are a sorry lot for the most part. If you have a good one, you are truly blessed. The ones I encountered seem they either don't understand your suffering, don't believe the degree of your suffering, or just don't care. None seem adept at offering any coping advice beyond a shrug and anti-depressants. Almost all practice with a greater concern that the DEA is looking over their shoulder at the pain medicine they prescribe than helping you as their patient. Even pain specialists I have seen seem to be more hi tech gadget sales people than care givers. Or they are the worst of the skeptics in believing the patient. It's hard to find anybody who cares or understands what you're going through. Except you. That's what's so empowering about this book. It makes no excuses and pulls no punches about the medical profession, friends, family, and the sorry way they almost all treat pain sufferers. The emphasis here is that YOU have to seize the initiative and guide yourself down the path of getting some sembelence of a life back. What's contained here is a simple method to find the parameters you can function in as you explore what you can and can't do. There are easy to follow tips and guides that help you document your condition as you follow the program. Not only is this useful for you as a timeline to measure progress, but it provides a solid database to present to your physcian which may help him/her understand what you are going through. But, just like following a diet plan or an exercise regimen, it's up to you to follow it through. The approach isn't pie in the sky and there are no claims that you'll find some miracle cure or fix. It's an instruction manual on how to seize back as much of your life as you can from the pain that holds you down. My next visit to my Neurologist will have me showing him this book and trying to resist the urge to slap him upside the head with it. Just the first 1/4 of it has done more for me than seeing him over the past 3 years has done. Mostly, this program has given me hope. That's something he never even thought to offer.

Good basic book!
This is a really good basic book for managing pain, it helps teach you to pace yourself, accept your condition, think differently and figure out how to do things for yourself. It is like a basic workbook. It doesn't judge you and talks about the levels of acceptance.

I personally enjoy reading books that give me meaning for my experience. I have found that Kitchen Table Wisdom is a really meaningful book for me.

Highly Recommended
I am a clinical psychologist working in a multidisciplinary pain treatment clinic.In my view, this book wins best of breed for a pain coping resources self-help book.I would put it in the running for best of show in self-help generally.Dennis Turk, PhD.is a leading expert in the subject of chronic pain in general and what works in pain coping resources in particular.
Like other good pain coping self-help books (e.g., "Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You" by Margaret Caudill, MD, PhD), it does an effective job of covering the range of what has been learned on helping chronic pain patients help themselves.Important areas of pain coping resources are effectively addressed (e.g., effectively adopting the role of your own pain expert; the extremely important, but frequently overlooked, issue of pacing; learning to effectively moderate sympathetic arousal; reducing fatigue; how interpersonal factors effect pain and visa-versa; managing fatigue; changing thoughts and behaviors; maintaining gains).
Unlike other books on these subjects, this book not only provides understanding and information.It is structured as an effective self-help tool. Although I do encourage my patients to use this book as part of their treatment with me, I strongly disagree with the reviewer above who suggested that the book is not effective to use "by yourself" and should include a "user manual."I have found the truth to be quite the contrary.The user manual is right there.The book is structured into ten lessons that conclude with well-conceived exercises to effectively encourage adoption of proven resources.Many of my patients pick up the book and effectively apply it with little or no assistance from me.
For others, I often make use of the book a focus of therapy.I hasten to add that for many with chronic pain the first issue is determining if the cost of addressing/managing pain appears worth the benefit.For many gaining the motivation to help self is the biggest challenge.
If you are looking for self-help help with chronic pain, I highly recommend this book.I also recommend "Managing Your Pain Before It Mangers You."In addition, I recommend this book to healthcare professionals who regularly, or occasionally,treat individuals with chronic pain, as an effective summary of current clinical wisdom on these subjects.

The Pain Survival Guide
If you are dealing with chronic pain, this is an excellent book to add to your arsenal of pain management tools. It's taught me how to become my own pain management expert and how to really rest, relax and pace myself. This is one of my favorite books and I keep referring back to it. Highly recommended!!

Absolute Must!
A.All living humans need to get this book.
B.Tell your friends.
C.This web site is great!
Thank you!
From Savage MN ... Read more

Book Description
How does the spectacle of the sufferings of others (via television or newsprint) affect us? Are viewers inured-or incited-to violence by the depiction of cruelty? In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag takes a fresh look at the representation of atrocity-from Goya's The Disasters of War to photographs of the American Civil War, lynchings of blacks in the South, and the Nazi death camps, to contemporary horrific images of Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Israel and Palestine, and New York City on September 11, 2001. In Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag once again changes the way we think about the uses and meanings of images in our world, and offers an important reflection about how war itself is waged (and understood) in our time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Excellent anti-war book
Surely Susan Sontag addresses the pain of others and how to deal with it, but her book goes deeply against all war, and as such, should have been read by George W. Bush before he started the Iraq war. She shows a great deal of sensitivity to what pain is caused by war, and how senseless it is. This is one of her books that makes me regret that she never received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Fortunately, she received a number of other literary prizes she nobly deserved, such as the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.

A Book that Everybody Must Read!!!
Susan Sontag only passed away recently. She was more of a philosopher, social activist, literary critic, and essayist than a fictional writer. In this book, she points out British writer Virginia Woolfe's view of war in today's society. War is a crime and an outrage where ever it might be whether it's in the boardroom, Wall Street, Sarajevo, Kabul, Baghdad, etc. War comes in many shapes and forms but what does war really mean to us. Is it about killing human lives or what about the destruction of the human soul in our society, we are transformed by the images displayed on cable television about the two wars going on and the lives lost. We are close to four thousand American soldiers being killing in Iraq. We had no reason to go but we did and now we must clean up the mess. I totally support our troops overseas because they are selfless human beings who would sacrifice their lives for their country. But what about the leaders who sent them there only to return home in coffins or end up at Walter Reed Medical Center for the injured veterans. Are the injured better off than the casualties? Maybe not because they have to live with their images of war and their actions. Sontag's book works because it makes us think about war without thinking so much about it. Where do we stand? Of course, it would be a perfect world without war and peace prevailed but war is a fact of life. Maybe Sontag should have used examples of wartime strategies that are not so gory or gloom with images of death and destruction. She did not live long enough to see Hurricane Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast. What about the business world where casualties are not just in coffins but at the unemployment office? This book made me think so that's why I'm writing about this situation. We lose 18,000 Americans every year because they lack health insurance, that's six times the amount of the victims of September 11, 2001. Maybe we don't have to declare war, uninsured Americans are at war with a society who has neglected them or disregarded their needs for whatever reason.

Suggestive but incomplete
Sontag's essay is concerned with the moral implications of looking, through photographs, at people who are suffering or dead. Much of the book is a history of war photography, which is intimately bound with the history of public tolerance of violent photos. While Sontag does not provide any revolutionary ideas, the essay is a succinct and thorough examination of the issues surrounding photography. And, if there is no grand thesis to keep in mind, her exploration is full of smaller, thought-provoking observations. She notes, for example, that displaying photos of dead bodies is less taboo the more foreign and faraway those bodies are. Until she pointed it out, I had not even realised how North American coverage of 9-11 included practically no pictures of corpses, although picturing the dead in foreign conflicts is an expectable way of rallying support for the victims. Her remarks on the way a photo replaces the memory of the thing itself are, if not surprising, good to have restated.

Sontag also does not ignore the uncomfortable reality of the pleasure which most people have in regarding suffering, but in this as in many areas of her essay, I wished that she would go further, spend more time teasing out and elaborating her analysis -- I wished, in other words, that she had written a real book-length book, not a long essay. On the other hand, the incompleteness of her discussion means that it is particularly good at stimulating further thought, at opening questions rather than closing them off.

Sontag adds here name to the after postmodernism movement
Sontag questions her ideas that have influenced half a centary. She is not alone Terry Eagleton (After Theory), Elain Showalter, Sandra Gilbert, and even Derrida (life.after theory) have done the same

Visual means are not enough to understand visual realities
As another reviewer of this book on Amazon has pointed out the title of this book is somewhat misleading. This is not a general consideration of the subject of how we regard the pain of others. And it is too not even a comprehensive treatment of how we regard the pain of strangers when that is represented to us through the media. It is rather a kind of historical consideration of the subject of representation of war through visual images, and how that has effected its intendedaudience.
Sontag begins with the horrifying representations of Goya, considers Civil War photography, images of the two great wars, including images of the Holocaust, representations of 9/11 and of recent horrors in Kossovo, and what her publisher refers to as Israel/Palestine.
As another Amazon reviewer has pointed out she does not really make a coherent strong argument. Her essay is a loose discursive one, written in her ordinary complex, awkward and difficult to understand style.
One important insight she has is that 'photographs' will always have a place for us because we can contemplate and remember them in the way we cannot the flow of images in video or film. The startling images that remain in mind of horrors of war are those given in photographs. And she too points out that it is the content of these photographs which is important, and that often the work done by amateurs who catch a vital moment is more memorable than that of professionals. This was she writes the case with many Holocaust photos, and also with the photos from 9/11.
Sontag wrote this book while she herself was going through the pain of terminal cancer. And for me this gives her absorption with the subject a certain authenticity.
Nonetheless I believe that she has only scratched the surface of the questions raised about the 'public presentation of the horrors of war'. The guilt over being entertained by the nightly news horror is one question i.e. whether 'looking at such photos' is not in a certain way a kind of 'moral failing'. But of course this when the 'turning away' can also be a moral fault.
But this leads to what I believe is a major error in the whole enterprise, the whole laying out of the subject. Photos alone , video alone cannot give enough background and context to make the reality wholly understandable. To see something horrible and be repelled by it( a little girl running naked with her hands up as in the famous Vietnam war photo, or emaciated bodies lying on bunk beds unable to move- as in photos of the liberation of concentration camps) is humane, and moral. But to really understand those realities, and all the realities which she is writing about a person has to know what is going on in a deeper way.
Here I come to another kind of criticism of Sontag, one which relates to her work in general. Her extreme - left often anti-American views have always repelled me. In this book she talks about how militants from both sides of the Israeli/ Arab Palestinian conflict look at their own victims. She picks as the Israeli victim one blown up in a suicide - bombing in Sbarro pizza in Jerusalem. And she picks as the Palestinian victim a child hit by an Israeli tank shell. These examples and her presentation of them it seems to me expose a basic misperception and immorality in her whole enterprise. The Israeli victims in Sbarro including four members of one family were civilians who were deliberately targeted. A photo of their scattered remains would no doubt be horrifying.A Palestinian child torn apart by a tank shell would present a no less horrifying picture. And it would fill every decent person with revulsion. But the fact is nonetheless that Israeli tankists do not fire deliberately at civilians. In fact they have orders to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties. This is in complete opposition to the policy of Palestinian terror groups who aim to murder and maim.
Being horrified by the images does not enable us to understand fully the reality.
Again the main point is that a more comprehensively truthful approach to the visual representations would have to closely relate them to literary presentations.
Finally. Sontag makes the point that the horrors of war cannot be understood really by those who have never really been in such wars. I believe that she is probably right. But that does not mean that those who have been exposed automatically have higher moral judgment.
As I understand it Sontag throughout her writing life, raised real questions but provided most often inadequate and even morally mistaken answers.


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Customer Reviews (7)

Tool of Empowerment
Bullying can range from the insidious, verbal cruelty and exclusion which girls are notorious for to full scale violence, which occurs among both sexes.

This book is a tool of empowerment for parents, educators and anybody involved with children on any level.One thing that is VITAL to keep in mind is NEVER make light of bullies and their cruelty.That will only make the child being bullied feel that the bullying behavior is being sanctioned and that recourse is out of the question.Making excuses for bullies also compromises respect; children are hard put to feel respect for an adult who exercises such poor judgment and appears to be taken in by bullies.

Condoning bullying behavior and mouthing platitudes to the bullied, such as "can't you take a joke/s/he's only kidding/work it out for yourself/you're too sensitive" is just as harmful as the bullying behavior.Platitudes of that ilk send out a "blame the victim" message and suggest that the bullying is not a serious matter when in fact it is.Recent events and relevant studies have shown that many school shooters were bullied.

Turning the other cheek means, I believe not responding to cruelty with cruelty.Self defense is an entirely different matter.Bullies will step up their abuse if they are not kept in check.They will continue to harass their targeted victims until they get the desired response.That is why telling children to ignore bullies does not work.Bullies don't let that one work.

Trevor Romain is a genius who clearly understands a myriad of dynamics among children.His clever cartoon pictures and his question and answer section open the doors to discourse and problem solving.I like the way he encourages readers to think of what they would do if they were being bullied and also to see if they are acting as bullies towards anyone else.

An excellent book to read with children and one they are sure to come back to enjoy.

A Must for Classrooms Across America
As an elementary principal, this book was loved by students and always checked out from the library. Trevor has a wonderful grasp on bullies and helps students in a sincere, motivating way. The dvd is super if you haven't checked into owning it. It's priced well and the animation/music is highly engaging. The material is solid and right-on with what I saw as an elementary principal and in dealing with bullying issues. If you are a teacher or can arrange author visits, go to trevorromain.com and look into a school/author visit. Trevor is inspirational for students, as well as adults, and will raise the bar for school-wide expectations with his "double-dog dare!" Trevor has visited our campus twice in two years and the students can't get enough!

No need to feel Helpless
No child should feel helpless when it comes to the jungle of a playground.This book encourages dialogue and an internal sense of courage.The book is very kid-friendly.The language is perfect for those grade 3-6.The format and cartoon characters make the whole book and subject very approachable for kids. Whether bullied or not, this raises awareness to help all kids help themselves.

Great in the Classroom!
This book has been a valuable part of my classroom read aloud program for 3 years now.It is valuable in that it really speaks to the students on their level.It is straight-forward about the problems and realities of bullies and teasing.This book often provided a great springboard into valuable classroom discussions.Students become empowered to stick up for themselves and to understand the thought process of a typical bully.

I would recommend this book for any classroom library.

GREAT BOOK FOR YOUNGER KIDS
I liked the cartoon explanations in this book, and the way the author explains that bullies are "self-esteem vampires"He goes into gang violence and what you should do about it as a child.He also goes into name-calling and general nastiness.I just wished that he would not have said that most children who are picked on, are shy children.In my experience, it is the children who are different in someway (race, religion, opinions, dress, hair color, braces etc..) that brings on the teasing.This book does not address that issue very well. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

At last a back doctor who doesn't tell me to give up riding!!
Dr Warson is a neurosurgeon and rider - yippee! Someone, who's first reaction is not to blame all your back problems on riding.This book provides an interesting look at your back's anatomy, function and problems (or potential problems).Stretching and strengthening exercises and practical advice on riding as you age (or with back aches).

Better than expected
I purchased this book sight unseen and really did not expect it to be as substantive as it is.The author is extremely knowledgeable about both riding and rider's back problems.I wish that I had been able to read it years ago.

I recommend this book to every rider, not just those with back problems, since it provides a lot of information on the aging rider's back, and none of us can turn back the clock!Prevention is worth a ton of cure.

Good book!
I bought this book pre-order and it arrived very quickly.The author knows his stuff.I am an x-ray tech by trade, so nearly everything I read was understandable to me.He wrote the book so everytone could understand it- medical terms were explained, and there was an extensive glossary of terms.I got the book because my husband suffers badly from back pain and is an avid rider.I occasionally suffer from back pain- usually from doing too much sitting trot.The author was very complete in his assessment of the rider and even the type of horse they should be riding.Fortunately my husband and his horse are a great match, me and my horse aren't so good, but with some work I think we will be OK.The author also went through a series of stretches and also treatment options from traditional to alternative.I found it a very interesting book with a lot of information for anyone who is interested in riding.I even loaned it to my chiropractor who said he would probably get a copy because he treats riders as well.

Happy reading,
Kathy ... Read more

Book Description
The original edition of this classic survival manual offered the first comprehensive patient guide for managing these conditions. Its extensive set of healing tools included targeted bodywork for painful trigger points and strategies to helpccope with chronic pain and sleep problems and the numbing effects of fibrofog. More than 75 percent of the second edition is new or updated material, including coverage of promising new research on the causes of fibromyalgia, evaluation of new treatments, complete discussions of special issues for women and men, and the latest information on medication. An update of the first edition's popular provider index helps sufferers select those practitioners who will take their complaints seriously and offer knowledgeable treatment advice. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (122)

Finally, a book that "gets it"
Too many books make it sound like that yoga nad antidepressants can basically make your fibromyalgia not a problem.She acknowledges the severity of the syndrome as well as the common co-exisiting condition (IBS, TMJ, etc.)
She is also the only book to back up her stance on pain management.For all those who, while crying in pain, have been told to "go home in take Tylenol b/c pain medication "doesn't work" for fibro, this is your book to copy and give to everyone.

On the more positive side, the wellness recovery plan in the 2nd edition is just wonderful and that can be adapted for any physical or mental condition.

One of the best books on fibromyalgia
I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about 12 years ago.In my quest to understand what was going on with my body, I discovered this book. It goes into great detail about your body's trigger points and what symptoms you may have related to those trigger points.I use this book on a daily basis to help me massage out the areas that are bothering me.This is an essential book for anyone diagnosed with fibromyalgia. It goes go into a lot of medical terminology which is it's only downfall.I am fortunate to be in the health care profession so I was able to understand it.I do recommend reading the first edition of this book before the 2nd because it goes into detail about fibromylagia and gives you a better understanding of the disease process. I keep both editions close to my bed so I have them handy if I need them. It is definitely a fibro "survival" essential!

Recommended by my Physician
This book is awesome.My doctor recommended it to me.I gave it to my sister & my niece for Christmas.

Path to Wellness
I went to 5 different doctors over 5 years before I was diagnosed. I then got a referal for a rheumatologist who wasn't very helpful. He just told me that yes you have fibromyalgia, go swimming and do some research on it. So I went to a big bookstore and browsed all the books on fibromyalgia. This one seemed more like a textbook written by someone that knows what they are talking about. They guy who wrote it actually has it and gives little stories about his own experience. The most important thing I got out of this book is that you have to find a bodyworker that knows fibromyalgia: myotherapists. I was wondering why physiotherapists, chiropractors and massage therapist weren't working...it's because they are bollox!!! Look up myotherapist in the phone book. My pain/tighness has been reduced by about 80%. =) You can be happy again too.

It's a bible for those of us with Fibro and Chronic Myofascial Pain
This book has some wonderful information! Written by someone that has a little sense of humor, which is enjoyable when on the subject of pain. I've read this over and over and find myself going back to it frequently to look up info. It is laid out well, has just the info you need without seeming like it's dragging on forever. I've borrowed it to friends, so they understand what it is I'm going through and they all really enjoyed the book. (I think it's the humorous writer that keeps you reading.)

I would recommend this to anyone hand down!
... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

Not what I thought it was
This is a tiny little book with lots of pictures and very little substance to it.It's designed to ask questions of the reader and point out certain behaviors, and that's it.I didn't find the information in it very useful, but since I do volunteer work with children I decided to keep in around to refer to from time to time.I didn't find it to be a book for adults at all.My advice is don't waste your money.

Good introduction
I agree with some of the other reviewers that this book is very simplified, but keep in mind too that the author's stated purpose is not to provide an exhaustive overview of childhood abuse and techniques of dealing with it.She says in the first chapter, "This book has more questions than answers.I ask the reader to explore slowly the issues of abuse in the past.Seek help from friends, relatives, or counselors in order to fully understand the abuse, to put it in perspective, and to move on the a healthier way of relating in the world."To this end, I think Dr. Gil was successful, and I could see how some survivors of child abuse would find this book helpful as a complement to therapy.But I agree with another reviewer that if you are at the point of seeking out a self-help book on surviving child abuse, you are probably already convinced that you underwent some form of it and are now most interested, and would most benefit by, specific advice or techniques to help you cope.As a survivor myself, the most interesting lesson I took away from this book was the theme of extremes playing a prevalent role in the life of an adult survivor of abuse.The brief descriptions of the different reactions/roles that adult survivors take on almost always point out that those reactions lie in one extreme or the other.The paradigm "all things in moderation" has been reinforced in my life after reading this book, which is indeed an important lesson but one that I already knew anyway.If you are struggling with this issue I can't say I wouldn't recommend the book, but only as a supplement to therapy or other, more exhaustive books.

good book for my clients
This is a book I give to clients who have past molest or abuse history.Eliana Gil has a beautiful and succinct way of explaining the "side effects" of such abuse - how it reveals itself in every realionship and how it is so disabling to it's victim. The best part is that it's easy to read and small in length making it a good book to give clients.

Outgrowing the pain
This is an excellent book for adults and possibly teens who were abused as children. The book is an easy read and the illustrations are a plus for those visual learners. I use this book on a regular basis with my clients especially women, who have been diagnosed with PTSD. My clients tell me this book is very helpful for them and easy for them to identify with. I would recommend using this book to others as either a self help or part of mental health therapy.

simple
This book is very simple. Large text and pictures. Its easy reading and I was able to whip through the book pretty quickly. ... Read more